A legal citation is a reference to a legal authority where particular information, such as a case or statute, can be located. What can be confusing is the fact that
there are many different sources and different ways to reference them. Legal citations are often confusing because they differ from references used in other types of research.
here we attempt to put them into plain English.

Case Citations

Case citations are a legal way of referencing another case which may, or may not, be relevant to the case at hand. In opposing briefs, they are more an attempt to convince
the court to adopt the particular line of reasoning that attorney, or pro se litigant, is trying to promote. It is best to cultivate the court case citations for pleadings
rather than rely upon those of an attorney who may very likely didtort the case to the inters of the client of the attorney.

A case citation will have a volume number, a reporter and a page number. The volume number is the official "book" number for the published opinions. The title
tells you which set of books. You would think the logical order would be the title, volume number and then the page but that is not the order they use.

256 US 247 is read as:

256 Volume number where the case appears

US Abbreviation for the title set of books reporting the case

247 Page number on which the case begins

The above example tells you that it is a Supreme Court decision in volume 256 at page 247.
Cases will be reported often in several different reporters. These additional citations are called parallel citations. Examples of parallel citations are:

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum v. Gentile Productions or Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum v. Gentile Productions

the parties' names; in the citation, names are underlined or in italics and are followed by a comma and a lower case "v." replaces "versus"

134

Reporter volume number followed by a comma

F.3d

Reporter title (abbreviated ) followed by a comma

749

The first page of the case in that volume [note: a second page number denotes the page on which the exact quote can be located.
In this case, 749, 751 would mean the case begins on page 749 and the quote was on page 751.]

6th Cir. 1998

The court and the year of decision is enclosed in parentheses and followed with a period [note: 6th Cir denotes the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals.
District courts are denoted by region, e.g., (C.D. Cal. 2008) which is the Central District of California.]

2008 WL 2390037

This is a West Law citation.

Case Citation Titles

The title US or S. Ct. will denote the US Supreme Court.

F.1d or F.2d or F.3d denotes Courts of Appeals for the various circuits. They are all lumped together in these volumes based upon the
date of the decision.